


on crowns

by panyang



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Childhood Friends, Drabble, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Kid POV, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panyang/pseuds/panyang
Summary: Even when they had just met, Iwaizumi was always telling Tooru to just look ahead.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime & Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15





	on crowns

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Izayacchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izayacchi/gifts).



> brief mention of oikawa having a fear of heights! it's resolved within .2 seconds, thanks to little baby iwa-chan being so sweet and full of wisdom. i had so much fun writing a very stream-of-consciousness style from a kid POV, so i hope you enjoy reading it too!! here's to more platonic kid iwaoi fics
> 
> thank you to izayacchi for being so kind and patient, i hope you like it!

Tooru considers the Iwaizumi's moving in next door a birthday gift of sorts. Honestly, it kind of is. It's June tenth; hot and sunny like all his birthdays tend to be, and an Akabou moving truck is parked down the street close to their home. He wasn't going to have a party today, because he'd decided to swap it for a really, really good sweatshirt he'd seen at the mall last week.

"Honey," his mom had said, leaning down to speak to him real close the way she does when she’s trying to be reasonable, "it's the middle of summer."

Tooru knows his mom thinks he won’t be able to make the most out of a sweatshirt at a time like this. But what's a mother to say against a really, really good sweatshirt? So Tooru says, “I know,” and walks home with a paper bag stapled closed, and a smile that goes from one ear to the other.

Tooru is wearing his really, really good sweatshirt when he first meets Iwaizumi-kun. He doesn't really come and say hi because he's feeling friendly - it's that Iwaizumi-kun is new, and so is his shirt, and none of the other kids have come to say something nice about the green cartoon icon on it that tells him to _BELIEVE_. 

“Hello,” Tooru starts. He makes sure to meet his eyes and smile big and toothy, the kind of smile his mom says is for meeting new people. And, well, Iwaizumi-kun, who has not yet introduced himself, only says hi back. He seems so unimpressed about everything. It makes Tooru tug at his shirt impatiently. What’s a kid got to do to get a compliment around here? Whatever. A new friend is still a new friend, even if they don’t say anything nice about your alien sweatshirt.

“You’re new,” Tooru says instead. Not a question. “Yes,” is the boy’s reply. “Iwaizumi.” So the new boy _does_ have manners. And is very formal. And decidedly very unfriendly.

“I'm Oikawa Tooru,” Tooru continues instead, then says, “Do you want to climb trees?” 

In a ranking of the most stupid things they do today, this offer will stand in third place, because Tooru doesn’t actually like to climb trees. It’s just that this scrappy-looking boy seems like he does, with the bug bites and bandaids and tough scowl. What a face to have, when you’re only like, eleven probably. Tooru doesn’t really know Iwaizumi-kun yet, only knows that he looks like he’s a little upset by a lot of things, and he just wants this kid to stop looking so troubled. It’s his birthday, after all, and what’s a birthday if you make a new friend and don’t try to make them feel better?

Iwaizumi-kun nods wordlessly at his offer, and Tooru thinks about which tree is best for climbing around here.

Down the street where Tooru lives are lines of tall, looming trees. He doesn’t actually know any of their names, which is fine. What’s there to know about trees anyway? Trees are tall and old and the grandpas of shrubs. Sometimes they get made into shelves to hold books and trophies and that picture frame of his dad in their living room. The ones closer to home are his favorite, because they look like proper grandpas. They flaunt their age, spitting out peels of gray-brown bark, the same color as his obaa-chan’s head. Tooru’s actually not sure how he’ll climb one, now that he thinks about it. But his teacher always says something about his dogged determination, calling him a strong willed boy when his mom picks him up from school. His mom will hide a laugh behind her hand and ruffle his hair.

“You mean stubborn.” she’ll say gently. “And reckless.” Tooru will only laugh. Tooru’s always been a laughing boy.

Tooru had first learned that he and heights don’t mix well when he was eight. He and his mom rode down a particularly massive escalator, and he had tried peering down past the transparent glass railing. It made him dizzy, a sick feeling starting in the deepest part of his stomach and then climbing all the way up to his ears.

“Stop looking down,” his mom had said, keeping her hand clasped over his. Tooru tilts his chin up, and he catches her nod approvingly, so he stays this way. Chin up, Tooru. Gotta keep your chin up when you’re so good at scaling the big, tall thing and so bad at coming back down. But it's fine, Tooru decides, glancing back at unimpressed Iwaizumi-kun before again scanning the trees before them. He’ll just pick the shortest one around, something only half as tall as the escalator from when he was eight, and then it'll be fine, even if heights aren’t his thing and likely will never be.

He looks up at his chosen tree. Wind shakes the leaves, and it looks almost disapproving. Like a proper grandpa. Oh geez. 

But still Tooru climbs, because he is stubborn, remember? And reckless. And then because, above all, he is a boy made by the places he takes himself to, and what is a peak for if not a thing to be conquered? “Look at me!” he says to his new friend, when he gets there. His hand is gripping the trunk when he briefly casts a downward glance to find Iwaizumi, and then somehow, the ground seems a lot farther than it was when he first climbed it. He can’t hide the way his knees buckle at that realization, and Iwaizumi seems to pick up on it real fast.

“Don’t look down,” Iwaizumi-kun calls out, hands cupped around his mouth.

"Don’t tell me what to do!” Tooru yells back, even as his voice quavers. How silly he must look, offering to climb a tree he can’t come down from. Iwaizumi-kun will probably laugh, the first time he’ll smile since they met will be over Tooru doing something embarrassing, and then he’ll make new friends because he’s smiling and looking friendly. His new friends will probably laugh with him too.

“You’re so stubborn,” he hears the boy say quietly, probably to himself, then, “Why even climb a tree if you're scared of heights?" Tooru doesn't have an answer to that. There are never any answers to the dares you make for yourself, only _because I can_.

"I'm going to call my mom," he tells Tooru, and _nooo_ , that's a terrible idea, because all the moms know each other, and Iwaizumi-kun's mom will tell his mom and he'll get in trouble for climbing a tree to impress his new friend. He'd already been toeing the line with a sweater in the middle of summer. Now they’re going to call the firemen to help bring him down. Maybe they’ll laugh with Iwaizumi-kun and his new friends, and then forget to bring him down like they’re supposed to.

"No!' he yells out. "Just, help me." Below him, he hears Iwaizumi groan, and wow, that's rich, coming from someone who's got both feet planted on steady ground. He squeezes his eyes shut.

"That's worse!" Iwaizumi-kun yells. "Just don't look down, not down, look on! ” He sounds frustrated now, and it’s upsetting Tooru more. Look on _what?_ he means to ask, annoyed and impatient in the way little boys get when they're scared. His eyes move to scan the distance for whatever thing it was that Iwaizumi-kun is talking about, and then in that same moment, the rest of the world seems to stretch before him.

If you asked Tooru of today - the taller one, who knows both the crown you wear and the one on trees meant for climbing on and standing over - he’ll say the tree wasn’t even that high up, and that he didn’t actually see as much of Miyagi as he thought he did. In fact, the Tooru of today could definitely climb that same tree easily, come back down just as fast. But if you asked the Tooru of then, eleven, in his brand new, really good alien sweatshirt, who has just figured out what it means to look ahead of you instead of down, he will say it's the tallest he’s ever been.

He’s not sure for how long he stays there, feeling more than a little captivated, when Iwaizumi-kun calls out again. “You okay?” And strangely, Tooru is.

Climbing down is still a problem. Tooru manages to descend to the lowest branch of the tree, a significantly shorter drop than that first one. But it’s a fall, nonetheless, and there’s really not much to look _on_ at from here, when the many little rows of houses become fewer, closer rows of houses and you’re left suspended in the awkward middle.

"Uh,” Tooru starts. “Little help, Iwaizumi-kun?”

Iwaizumi-kun, who still hasn’t climbed his own tree, really, why’d you even agree to tree-climbing in the first place - does the second stupidest thing the two of them have done today. He moves to stand right beneath Tooru, stretches out his arms, and then tells him, “Let go!” He's got his chest puffed out and his legs apart, like he's bracing himself for this, and it's reassuring, when you think about that. When you see all the resolve a little boy has when he means to catch his friend from a four foot drop that feels like its thirty meters too high.

And Tooru, tall and reckless and doing the absolute stupidest thing they’ve both done today, does. He lands on Iwaizumi in a comic heap and immediately says, "That was not a catch!" He gets up on his feet and brushes dirt off his really good shirt, man, his mom is going to get so mad. His hair is all messy now, too.

Iwaizumi, still on the ground, somehow unhurt, grins up at him. It's probably the first smile Iwaizumi-kun has shown him all day. 

"I know. I still got you, though." Tooru huffs, then asks, "Are you okay?" Iwaizumi-kun nods. "M'okay. Kinda hungry." There's a pause as he gets up to stand next to Tooru. "Do you like tofu? We just moved here and my mama made some for us to eat on the way." Tooru considers this.

"Okay," he says. "Is that your apology for not climbing the tree and not catching me, or your birthday gift?" Iwaizumi has already started walking down the street, so he turns his head and says,

"I didn't know it was your birthday."

"Now you do," Tooru says happily. "Do you like my shirt?"

Iwaizumi gives him a once-over, all the way from his scuffed shoes to his dirt-caked, not so new but still really good sweatshirt and says, "Yeah. It looks nice." Then, "Come on, our house is this way."

Tooru grins, following behind him, and looks on.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> aahh happy childhood iwaoi fic, feels good, feels organic. honestly i've always just liked the idea of iwaoi first meeting and iwa-chan is just, almost immediately exasperated
> 
> thank you for reading! i hope you enjoyed :') kudos and comments help flowers grow


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